510. Kiss / Hotter Than Hell. 1974. 3/5

In February of 1974 Kiss had released their self-titled debut album, rising on the back of their hard touring schedule and the marketability of their costumes and make up which were beginning to give the band some traction. Touring on the back of the album’s release saw them gain a core following, something that their management and record company looked to take advantage of. With this in mind, just six months after that debut album’s release, Kiss, was back in the studio, writing and recording the follow up album. In the modern day and age, it seems like a ludicrously short time between albums. Releasing albums every year must have been difficult enough, but creating another album in a timespan shorter than that surely would create some problems. In recent episodes of this podcast, we have seen the result of bands who have had to create new material under such time constraints as this, and the general feeling about those albums is that, given a little more time to compose and refine the material those albums may have ended up being better than they were.
Kenny Kerner and Richie Wise were again chosen as producers, but as they had just relocated to Los Angeles, the New York based band followed them to the west coast, something that didn’t take long to not sit well with them. They were out of their comfort zone, something that may have affected their mindset in that regard.
How much pressure would have been on the band to come up with an album that could be a worthy follow up to their debut just months after they had finished recording that album? To know now, looking back, at the number of iconic tracks that album contains, it feels as though it was always going to be a difficult proposition. Added to relocating to unknown territory to record the next album, the whole situation in retrospect looks as though it was a pressure cooker. IN fact, one might say that it was “Hotter Than Hell”

This album has been described as moody and darker than the debut album, and in a way that is channelled by the plodding pace of many of the tracks here as well. “Got to Choose” leads off that way, Gene’s bass taking prominence, and Paul’s vocals are in his lower range than his best tracks where he hits the high range which in most cases brings the enjoyment to the song. Here it is a slower and less energetic start to the album, brightened by Ace’s guitar solo through the middle of the song. “Goin’ Blind” is a reworking of a Wicked Lester song, that musically drags the mood down to the depths and the lyrical content about a romance between a 16 year old girl and 93 year old man hardly engendering itself to anyone. The title track on this studio album mirrors the opening song, barely getting out of second gear as the music plods along to a morbid drum beat and Paul’s vocals not being pushed at all. When it has been played live it always sound better, but the bones of the track remain as a slow tempo mood stomper.
The one major exception to this is “Parasite”, probably not surprisingly written by Ace given what is happening around this song on the album. It brightens up the album immediately after the slow start and jumps out of the speakers at you as one of the top shelf songs from the album. Ace’s guitaring is fabulous, and Gene’s vocals are at their best with the galloping beat. Ace wrote three songs on this album, handing one each to the other band members to take on the lead vocals of the track. His confidence in his own vocals at this point in time was visibly low. In the case of “Parasite” at least, the choice of Gene to sing it is perfect. Alongside this, the middle album tracks of “Let Me Go, Rock ‘N Roll” and “All the Way” show some enterprise and energy. “Let Me Go, Rock ‘N Roll” has a 1950’s rock and roll sound to it, with Ace’s guitar shadowing that era’s sound during his riff and solo, and Gene again getting up front and energetic in his vocals. It is only a little over two minutes in length, but it is a good pick me up. “All the Way” is a typically upbeat Gene song to follow it, with great support vocals during the chorus and another Ace special in the solo section. And yet another Gene song “Watchin’ You” follows in the same wake with a great drum beat from Peter helping to drive the track. After the downside mood in the first third of the album this middle section lifts the album, even if lyrically it isn’t Shakespearean.
“Mainline” is written by Paul but sung by Peter, and this combination gives the song a very early 70’s contemporary sound. At times Peter sounds like great Australian rocker Billy Thorpe, and on this song the resemblance is almost uncanny. This is followed by “Comin’ Home” with Gene’s bass line coming through as a dominant force, and Paul’s vocals sounding the most Paul-like for the album. One thing that is unusual on this album is that of the ten tracks, Gene sings five, Peter two, and Paul only three. “Strange Ways” is the second of those Peter sung tracks, with a tempo reminiscent of the earlier tracks on the album. Musically it is a strange choice to close out the album. Reverting back to what had come at the top of the album, and then having an abrupt end to the song and therefore the album, feels like a less than satisfactory conclusion.

Yes! It’s Kiss again! And my entry story remains the same. (I wonder if my cousin David ever actually listened to my podcast – which he definitely won’t - if he would actually remember his days living at our grandmothers and his walls covered in Kiss posters and me outside his bedroom door listening to him playing these albums at high volume...).
Anyway... yes... a foray from my cousin, to the singles on the radio and “Crazy Nights”. Most of you will know the story by now. And the discovery of the 1970’s albums was what came after all that. And when I started going back for those albums, there were some that grabbed me immediately, fastened themselves onto me, and clung on for dear life. And there were others that... just didn’t make the cut. “Hotter Than Hell” was certainly one of the latter. Through no fault of its own, it didn’t have the components that I was looking for in a Kiss album by the time I got around to listening to it. I like music with a good tempo, with energy. I like the vocals to be expressing themselves, not just going through the motions. And for the most part here, “Hotter Than Hell” can’t offer that. Compared to others such as the debut album and then “Dressed to Kill” and “Destroyer”, it was less enticing. I did listen to the album when I got it, but in the queue to be the Kiss album I chose to listen to when that desire came, it was a long way back.
As I have had my CD copy back in the stereo over the last couple of weeks, I have wondered if I would feel differently about this album if I had been old enough to listen to it when it was released, rather than trying to come to terms with it in a future time. And I still come to the same conclusion, even after giving this another dozen or so at least listens for this episode. That of those first four albums in particular, this is the weakest, where the material overall just doesn’t compare to those other three albums. And my tastes also want those opening songs to be faster and more energetic, such as they would have played them live on stage. Because then I think they would have all sounded far better than they do here.
In conclusion? I don’t mind “Hotter Than Hell”. Perhaps I have sounded harsher here than I need to be, and that is just my own musical bias coming through. In the Kiss catalogue, this is not a top 10 album. For me it is probably nearer the bottom than the top. That doesn’t make it a bad album, just one that I find less great than others. Far better was just around the corner for the band, including the live album that was to be the single greatest influence on their fortunes for the rest of their career.